Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless Link”
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APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 1/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” Final Report September, 2008 PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 2/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” Index Chapter Page Acronyms-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 1. Outline of the Project--------------------------------------------------------------------------4 1.1. Executive Summary 4 1.2. Partner Organizations/Institution 10 1.3. Project Committee 10 2. Final Report for “System Construction”-----------------------------------------------12 3. Final Report for “Effects of ICT in Education”---------------------------------------23 4. Financial Report--------------------------------------------------------------------------------46 PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 3/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” Acronyms AP Access Point APT The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity ICT Information and Communication Technology MICT Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (Thailand) NTT Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation NTT-AT NTT Advanced Technology Corporation UNINET The Inter University Network Project (UniNet) TCU Thailand Cyber University WALAILAK Walailak University Wifi a wireless technology brand owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance intended to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards Benjamarachutit Benjamarachutit Nakhon Si Thammarat Secondary School Chulabhorn Princess Chulabhorn's College Nakhon Si Thammarat PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 4/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” 1. Outline of the Project 1.1. Executive Summary 1.1.1. Objectives of the Project This pilot project challenges to examine the effects of the long WiFi wireless link for south rural region in Thailand, and to promote ICT in education of rural schools. In Thailand, despite beneficial geographical location and potential of human capital, it has been difficult to cultivate the southern areas in terms of ICT. So far the rural educational institutions have struggled to enhance ICT in education; local network infrastructure is still unavailable because of dismal rural security and hesitation to investment of private firms. Then, MICT decided to examine beneficial wireless connection to provide ICT services and education by setting up the regional core center in Walailak University that two hops away from the nationwide university network (UniNet, see Fig.1 below Walailuk University connect to Prince Songkha University which have directly link to UniNet) and try to study indispensable know- how of long wireless network technologies and available educational applications to educational institutions in the region. Fig 1: Network of UniNet (Walailak University is shown as WU) The Inter University Network Project (UniNet) and Thailand Cyber University (TCU) also intended to provide their variety of academic services to pilot sites, but all the services under the Ministry of Education are structured by leased lines, then they could not plan any possible measures for this area. Thus, in this pilot study trial, we intend not only to install long WiFi technology, but also to provide concrete services and learning achievements by ICT on pilot schools. This also means that we are challenging to achieve equally access chances and services of ICT in the southern region of Thailand. In addition, we have plans to develop specific educational cares in terms of ICT education by designing courses with e-Learning and video conference. Here, we will develop deliberate actions of offering courses by multi layered cares of regional, national, and international assistance (see Fig. 2 below).Summarizing a plan of this pilot study, this will be PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 5/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” proactive case study for other rural educational institutions located in other rural areas of Deep South in Thailand as well, and will show a concrete countermeasure for the rural isolation with comprehensive commitments. Fig. 2: Overall Project Outline PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 6/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” 1.1.2. Project Site Walailak University Benjamarachutit school Chulabhorn College Fig. 3: Nakorn Si Thammarat Province (show in red color) Fig. 4: Walailak University at Tha Sala District (red circle) The project site is located in Nakorn Si Thammarat Province in the southern part of Thailand. Walailak University, the main university in the province, will be the host university for the Wireless Link. Princess Chulabhorn's College Nakhon Si Thammarat and Benjamarachutit Nakhon Si Thammarat School will be the remote site of this pilot study. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 7/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” 1.1.3. System Outline 1.1.3.1 Network Infrastructure Walailak University Network Infrastructure 155 Mbps Walailak U. 34 Mbps Prince Sonkla U. Fig 5. Show computer network between UniNet and Walailak University Walailak University link to UniNet via Prince Songkla University. The link between Walailak University and UniNet is 34 Mbps and the link between Prince Songkla University and UniNet is 155 Mbps (which will be upgraded to 1 Gbps at mid of 2008) PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 8/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” Princess Chulabhorn's College Nakhon Si Thammarat Network Infrastructure Fig 6. Show Network Infrastructure of Princess Chulabhorn's College Nakhon Si Thammarat Princess Chulabhorn's College Nakhon Si Thammarat have 2 Mbps connection to Poll of Princess Chulabhorn share network, which have 25 Mbps bandwidth connect to Internet via TOT Internet (Private internet provider company) 1.1.3.2 Applications (regional and national layer) 1. Internet service in pilot community colleges 2. Qualified and secured video conference session meetings among regional core and sites by IPv6 3. Connection to Nationwide UniNet service (e.g. video conference to all universities), and TCU services (e.g. e-learning, e-library, e-students’ community, e-administration) 4. Provision of specially designed Distance Education courses to receiving colleges/school via video conference and/or e-learning from capital, regional core center, and the center in Japan. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com APT ICT Development Programme for Supporting ICT Pilot Projects in Rural Areas 2007, 9/45 “Pilot Study to Support Rural Education by Wireless link” 1.1.3.3 System Configuration The system configuration is shown in the Figure 1.2. Partner Organizations/Institutions 1.2.1 Project Owners · MICT (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology) MICT is primary governmental organization and regulatory body in the field of telecommunications and ICT in Thailand. The owner of this project is the ICT Usage Promotion and Development Bureau under MICT. The ICT Usage Promotion and Development Bureau is the center to coordinate between and among central and local governmental organizations and educational institutes in Thailand. · TCU (Thailand Cyber University Project) TCU is the project under The Commission on Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Thailand. TCU is a knowledge and education hub, using UNINET and the latest technologies to provide further education for all, for both formal and informal education. TCU will increase the number of people who can access higher education, gaining knowledge at their convenience, irrespective of time or location. TCU have a large digital learning resources archive hosting at http://www.thaicyberu.go.th. TCU will provide learning resources, online courses, and support and take care of computer server, LMS (Learning Management System) and other software that will be used in this pilot study. · UNINET (Inter University Network Project) UNINET is the project under The Commission on Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Thailand. UNINET is the government organization that established inter- university computer network for all public universities in Thailand. The educational network and its coordinating system which connects all educational institutions, serves everyone by creating a channel for communicating educational information. The network is very convenient, economical and beneficial. The capacity of UniNet’s backbone is sufficient to connect higher educational institutions. At present, there are more than 176